It has previously been proposed to simplify and speed up construction of a timber or composite cellulosic fibre framed building, such as a house, by manufacturing and pre-assembling complete sections in a factory and assembling the sections on site. This technique reduces the need to employ skilled labour on site and the automated manufacture of the sections in a factory allows improved quality, because parts can be cut and assembled to close tolerances.
However, though assembly time is reduced on site, the total time taken to construct a building, that is to say from its conception to its completion, is to be measured in months rather than days. Architect drawings need first to be sent to the manufacturer of the building sections. From these plans, the manufacturer needs to generate the machine instructions required for the production of the parts that are to be assembled into each section. Such machine instructions will, for example, be used to cut timber to the desired dimensions and to make holes in the timber in the places specified by the architect plans. After they have been factory assembled, the “flat pack” sections must then be shipped to the site where the building is to be erected, and detailed instructions must be prepared for sending to the crew responsible for erecting the building by assembling the pre-manufactured sections.